


Circle

by shadowglove88



Series: The Adept [3]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV), NCIS, Smallville
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Crossover, Crystal Skulls, Gen, Kidnapping, Tricksters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-27
Updated: 2019-05-27
Packaged: 2020-03-20 14:18:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18994306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadowglove88/pseuds/shadowglove88
Summary: When Chloe is kidnapped by Coyote, Reid tries to help and gets kidnapped as well. Now in the Coyote's lair, Chloe has to make a very hard decision: the fate of the world-or possibly losing her own sanity?





	1. Chapter 1

"Are you okay?" Chloe asked, leaning over him as the slim male with chin-length silky, light brown hair began to come to. "Were you hurt? Does it hurt anywhere?"

His eyelashes fluttered before opening, revealing light brown eyes. His pupils visibly not only tried to accustom themselves to the darkness around them, but tried to make her out in the shadows. "Does everywhere count?"

She barked out surprised laughter as she brushed her fingers over his hair softly, revealing a cut on his forehead that he flinched slightly at when she touched it. "You really shouldn't have tried to get in the middle of things. It would have ignored you if you'd just let it take me."

He blinked, looking up at her. " _It_?" He leaned further against the cave wall. "What happened? What was that thing?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." She turned and sat down next to him in the near total darkness, leaning against the cave wall and looking up at the pitch black darkness above.

Her father was going to  _kill_  her.

The fact that she hadn't called in to report would have already clued in her team and family to the fact that something had gone far from according to plan. Gibbs (also known as  _dad_  when not working) hadn't wanted her coming alone on this investigation anyway, but everyone had been busy and there were a string of deaths. Chloe couldn't just wait for everyone to clear their schedules to come with her.

Especially not when she was eighteen already.

"Try me." The young man trapped with her turned his head in her direction, his voice bringing her out of her thoughts.

"Alright  _fine_." She took in a deep breath. "He's Coyote."

There was a pause as the man eyed her. "As in a human smuggler?" He made a face. "This isn't a boarder town."

"No, no I don't mean  _that_  sort of Coyote." Chloe continued looking up at the ceiling, wondering why she hadn't been better prepared for this sort of situation. In her line of business the supernatural was only divulged on a need to know basis, but considering that Coyote had taken them both, and they were in his lair, she figured that her fellow kidnapee  _needed to know_.

There was another pause before the man spoke again. "I doubt that the animal itself kidnapped us, because while I didn't get a good look at your attacker I know for a fact that it isn't  _Canis latrans_ , so I can only guess that the Coyote you're referring to is the mythological creature."

She looked towards him shocked. "You know about Coyote?"

He made a face and turned more towards her. "Mythology and legends were never my forte, but I like to broaden my horizons. I've read a couple of books on Native American mythology and came upon the myths of Coyote, and Raven. I believe in some other cultures they call them Tricksters."

"It's similar to a Trickster, yes." The eighteen year old turned to him, completely shocked and intrigued. "I'm sorry, I haven't introduced myself. My name is Chloe Sullivan."

"Spencer Reid." His eyes were still on her in the near-complete darkness. "Why exactly was a Native American  _myth_  trying to kidnap you? Do you know if it has anything to do with the string of unsolvable murders that have been happening in these parts?"

Her eyes narrowed. "What do you know about the murders?"

"I work with the BAU, and we were called in to help the local authorities catch the killer," he explained. "We analyze the killers by patterns, their victims, and it helps us narrow things down and find the killer before he strikes again."

"You weren't able to find a correlation between these victims, were you?" She mumbled, leaning back against the wall and closing her eyes.

"No, actually, and the killer doesn't seem to fit any sort of category that we know of," Spencer admitted, sounding very uneasy with this fact.

"He won't. And if you ask me, it's better for you to leave him alone before he fixes his eyes on your group." Chloe took in a deep breath. "Coyote has a way of knowing the deep dark secrets lying inside of us all, and if he sees someone who needs to be punished they  _will_  be punished. Not all the punishments end in death, and those who live change incredibly, learning their lessons." Her jaw clenched. "Its only those who won't change who don't make it."

"Wait a second." Spencer frowned. "You're saying that all those victims had some deep dark secret they were holding? There was a pastor involved! And high school principal."

"Ah, yes, Pastor Freeman and Principal Gregory." Chloe made up her face. "Pastor Freeman is an abusive son of a bitch who knows enough to hit Mrs. Freeman places that her clothes cover, and Principal Gregory has been known to use his position to  _encourage_  the young female staff into doing  _extra credit_."

"How do you-?"

"You aren't the only one who's been investigating, Mister Reid." 

"Doctor Reid," he corrected awkwardly.

"Really?" She asked, surprised. "You look kinda young to be a doctor."

He ducked his head in embarrassment. "I get that a lot."

"What sort of doctor? Medicine or-?"

"I have an undergraduate degree in Psychology and Sociology," Reid clarified immediately, as if used to having to do so. "I also have doctorates in Mathematics, Chemistry and Engineering, and I'm working in another degree in Philosophy."

Chloe blinked, wondering if this is how other people felt when they met her. "How old are you?"

"Let's just say I'm not thirty yet," he hedged, obviously uncomfortable with the topic. "Who exactly are  _you_?"

"Well, I just graduated from highschool." She felt a little silly considering that he had all those degrees under his belt. "I'm also an agent with the D.C. NCIS division, although I do not only work with cases that involve the Navy or Marines. I handle the cases that involve, or have the possibility of involving, the supernatural. When I heard about these killings I thought something was off so I did some extensive diggings into the background of the victims and found out that each of them had  _really_  dark secrets they were hiding. That was when I began to suspect that it was Coyote, especially since their deaths were all ironic considering their sins during life."

"So you came to investigate."

"Yes, I'd managed to discern the disguise Coyote had taken and I was confronting him when you appeared."

"I heard struggling," he defended his actions. "I-."

"Coyote apparently needed me for something and wanted me to leave with him immediately, but I refused to go without clearing it first with my superior," Chloe explained, not quite sure why she felt a little embarrassed. "Coyote wasn't happy about that."

"Wait,  _why_  would Coyote want you?"

"You know, you're taking this pretty well," she stalled.

"I prefer to accept the possibility of the supernatural than the possibility that I'm hallucinating and having a conversation with you when you might not even exist," Spencer answered with blunt sincerity.

She smiled, amused by that.

"What he  _isn't_  saying," a voice announced in the darkness, "is that his mother is in the loony bin. She's schizophrenic and he's terrified, since its genetic, that you might be his first schizophrenic episode." He then chuckled. "Of course, he doesn't know that  _your_  mother is interned in a mental health institution as well."

They jumped and turned to look towards the voice.

No one else was visible.

"He has nothing do with this, Coyote. You shouldn't have brought him." She stood, looking towards the darkness where the voice was coming from, and all of a sudden the cave was lit up brightly, and she was staring at the coyote with human body standing before her before it morphed into complete human form.

"He would have gone back to his colleagues, I couldn't let that happen. Not until I'd seen you and you'd helped, of course." He shrugged. "And I didn't hurt him... much. The gash on his head only happened when I dropped him, and I really can't be blamed for that."

Spencer's eyes were wide as he slowly stood, having witnessed Coyote's transformation.

Coyote smiled. " _Right_. This way." With a snap of his fingers the walls of the cave smoothened out and were decorated by paintings and embroidered hangings.

"Back In Black" echoed throughout the cave, Coyote shaking his head to the music as he led the way.

Spencer just continued to watch in shock, falling into step with Chloe as the blonde followed Coyote down the hallway towards a large door, which exploded into confetti and let them pass.

Chloe smiled, picking some confetti from her hair, having to admit that the Coyote was a bit  _showy_. But her smile disappeared from her face when she saw what was arranged in a circle in the middle of the grand room.

Coyote stopped and looked at her, before motioning towards them. "They have been waiting for you, Adept."

Spencer stepped forwards, standing next to her. "I can't believe it, this is the Circle of 13 Skulls."

"You know of them?" Coyote asked, surprised.

"Of course!" Spencer exclaimed as he turned to look at his abductor. "There are very few legends that cross over cultures and times the way the crystal skull legends do, being contemporarily shared between the Mayans, the Aztecs, the Native Americans and other indigenous people around the world." He turned to Chloe. "It was said that the skulls were kept inside a pyramid in a formation of tremendous power known as the Ark. This Ark was comprised of the twelve skulls from each of the sacred planets kept in a circle, with the thirteenth skull, the largest, placed in the center of the formation. The thirteenth skull was supposed to represent the collective consciousness of all the wolds, connecting up the knowledge of all the sacred planets."

"When the 13 skulls are placed together they will awaken a new era, transforming an old paradigm into a new world." Coyote nodded. "They are complete depositories of knowledge, and each skull contains a particular specialist area of information."

"Like a living library." Spencer blinked. "Each is like a volume in a set of encyclopedias."

Chloe backed up slightly, glaring at Coyote, suddenly understanding why she'd been brought here. " _No_."

Spencer looked between them, obviously confused.

"It is your destiny, it is for  _you_  that I have been keeping these safe." Coyote narrowed his eyes.

"No it  _isn't_!" She could feel hysteria built deep inside of her. "My brain is  _already_  filled with so much information and  _crap_! I can hardly learn anything else! I can't go to college because my brain can't concentrate on things people tell me or try to teach me-my  _brain_  just takes over and shovels more and more supernatural crap into my head! I will  _not_ download  _even more_  information into my hard-drive! It'll crash my system!"

"You don't have the proper software to run the programs trying to run," Coyote replied sagely. "Now you will."

" _Bullshit!_ " She snapped, stepping towards him, poking her finger menacingly into his chest. "I will  _not_  stand in the middle of that circle."

Spencer turned to look at the circle as he realized something. "There are only twelve skulls."

"Then you condemn your world," Coyote announced darkly. "The time is almost upon us, the calendar will soon end...the time man has on this earth is coming to an end and it  _will_  end in their destruction if you do not do this."

Chloe snarled at Coyote, showing teeth, before turning away from him with a little cry.

She was scared. So terrified. She hadn't wanted to become the Adept, hadn't known what she was accepting when she did, and she wasn't ready for this.

It was so  _damn hard_  trying to pretend to be normal the way she was, and now Coyote was asking her to take on even  _more_. She'd had to sacrifice normal teenaged years, had had to give up the thought of going to college like her few friends from high school. Her brain had taken over her life, the information proving to be more of a curse, a  _hindrance_ , than a gift.

The only people who could understand her were her father, his team... and the man who she felt as her adoptive father.

But Chloe... Chloe needed something more than just her job.

She wanted a nice, normal evening with a nice, normal guy, while on a nice, normal date. But between the supernatural cases she was working, her  _seriously_  overprotective father, and the fact that she was a walking, talking, vessel for all the supernatural knowledge there was-it made it difficult for  _anything_  normal to ever happen to her.

And now Coyote wanted to fill her mind with even  _more_  information about only the gods knew  _what_?

No! She didn't want to do this! She wanted to scream. Yell. Wanted to go back before all this happened, before she was a living Encyclopedia of Weird. Before she got enthralled with the Supernatural. Before she was duped by Lionel Luthor's claims to want to save the world and make life a better experience for all those around them.

She just wanted to be  _normal_  again.

But if Coyote could be trusted, if  _Azazel_  could be trusted, if her obscure  _dreams_  could be trusted... something  _very big_ was soon going to happen, and apparently the fate of the world rested in the balance.

She closed her eyes tightly.

She didn't want to do this, but then she thought of her fathers, of her friends, of her colleagues. She thought of people like Spencer out there, thinking that they had to worry about monstrous people, not of the  _real_ monsters. People who had  _no idea_  what was really going on in the world.

Gulping back panic and tears, she turned towards Coyote. "So I just walk there and stand in the circle."

He nodded.

Spencer reached for her, holding her arm. "Chloe, I don't know if this is such a great idea. You don't know what's going to happen-if anything  _does_. I mean, there have been previous attempts to join the thirteen skulls together and nothing has ever happened."

"That is because they haven't had the correct skulls... or the Adept." Coyote explained gravely.

"Adept?" Spencer frowned.

Chloe slipped from his hold and took in a deep breath. "This isn't going to be fun."

And with that she stepped inside the circle.


	2. Chapter 2

Having slipped off her shoes to better connect with the earth, Chloe entered the circle with wariness and anxiety as she positioned herself in the middle, facing Coyote and Reid. She took in a deep breath and waited for whatever was going to happen to happen, but after a couple minutes of nothing she began to feel more than a little silly.

"You're not trying," Coyote complained.

"Not trying  _what_?" Chloe snapped, hands going to her hips. "I'm here, standing in the middle of the stupid circle just like you told me to. You never told me that I had to do anything else."

" _Women,_ " Coyote murmured to Reid before sighing and turning to Chloe. "Try and  _connect_  with the skulls. Open up the channel of information, get it flowing."

"Connect with skulls, right," Chloe grumbled, taking another deep breath and closing her eyes as she outstretched her arms, palms facing upwards. She tried clearing her mind, but it was near impossible as her brain was going over all the information it knew about the crystal skulls and what was within them.

Her brain was seriously geeking out, and trying to reign it in was proving to be near impossible.

Reid tilted his head to the side, watching her curiously.

"Oh just  _start_  already!" Chloe snapped, stomping her foot.

Suddenly the skulls started light up in a clockwise formation, and by the time the last skull, which was the one in front of her, lit up, the lights merged together and beamed into her like a blast of pure energy. Chloe gasped as suddenly what she could only describe as 'downloading' began, the information seeping out of the skulls and entering her own.

The pain was unbearable, and forced her down on her knees.

Chloe brought her outstretched hands to her head and screamed as her brain throbbed in agony.

"No!" Coyote held Reid back when the thin man made to go into the circle. "You disrupt it and you could kill the Adept."

"It's killing her now!" Reid struggled.

Numbers, symbols, words, chants, equations...so many things were crammed into her skull, all random.

She couldn't even see clearly anymore, those symbols crossing in front of her eyes, more and more overlapping each other until she couldn't see anything but them.

And that was her world.

* * *

Ziva didn't know what exactly to do.

Chloe was missing, and apparently so was a member of the Behavior Analyst Unit, which meant that Gibbs and Agent Hotchner (the BAU unit's chief) were in bad moods. Not only were Chloe and FBI Agent Dr. Spencer Reid missing, but Hotchner and his team realized that Gibbs' team knew something they weren't telling them about the case... and Tony's being an ass as usual wasn't helping. Whenever Tony wasn't trying to hit on Agent Prentiss he was enjoying lording the 'that's need to know information-and you don't need to know!' in the faces of the ever-growing furious FBI team. They had a point when they stated that one of their own was involved so it  _was_  'need to know', but Gibbs always preferred to keep Chloe and her supernatural cases as secret as possible (as did the President). Gibbs only revealed anything if there was no other alternative-or if Vance (or the President) ordered him to.

Hotcher was obviously losing his patience with Gibbs and Gibbs had lost his patience a long time ago.

And what was when they heard it: A male's voice in the woods calling for help.

Ziva reacted first, pulling her gun and racing towards the person in distress, flashlight shining in front of her. She could hear others crashing behind her, some of the FBI calling their colleague's name, obviously recognizing this voice as his, but it was Ziva who reached them first, eyes widening when she saw the bruised and cut couple stumbling through the woods in the dark.

Dr. Reid had an ugly gash on his forehead but otherwise he seemed fine, it was Chloe who was hardly hanging onto consciousness. Dr. Reid had his arm around her and was shouldering most of her weight.

" _What happened_?" Ziva asked, pointing her gun around them in case whatever was responsible was still out there.

FBI and NCIS agents converged on them, and in seconds Gibbs was at his daughter's, taking her from Dr. Reid.

" _Chloe_?" Gibbs pulled her into his arms just as her eyes rolled in the back of her head and she fainted. " ** _Chloe_**?"

"Reid!" Agent Prentiss hugged Dr. Reid, the other agents doing the same other than Hotchner, who just nodded to Reid with a relieved expression.

"What happened?" Tony turned to Dr. Reid the same time Agent Hotchner asked: "Who took you?"

The younger, lanky man looked at his chief, his expression clearly nervous. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Try us." McGee narrowed his eyes.

Ziva instead kept her attention all around them, alert and ready to act on the first sign of danger. Whatever had kidnapped Dr. Reid and Chloe could still be out there, could be watching, could attack at any moment.

"How did you escape?" Agent Hotchner asked, looking around him, alert as well.

"He-it-he-," Dr. Reid shook his head. "After Chloe did what  _our kidnapper_  wanted, we were let go."

"What did she do?" Gibbs snapped, still holding the limp body of his unconscious, eighteen year old daughter.

" _It_?" Agent Morgan frowned, catching that little slip up.

Dr. Reid looked around, looking conflicted. "You'll think I'm insane."

Ziva noticed the looks the BAU team shared.

Gibbs turned to Tony. "DiNozzo, take Dr. Reid into custody for questioning."

"Now wait a minute Special Agent Gibbs!" Agent Hotchner snarled. "You have no authorization to-."

Gibbs nodded to McGee, who pulled out a paper and handed it to the BAU unit chief. "As soon as we realized your agent had been taken along with ours our Director petitioned for this."

That slip of paper had only just arrived a couple of minutes before Dr. Reid had been heard.

"This..." Agent Hotchner looked up from the paper. "Is a direct order from the  _President_."

"Of the  _United States_?" Agent Prentiss gasped.

Agent Hotchner nodded, and though it was obvious that he had so many questions, he held them back and (obviously very reluctantly) let NCIS take Dr. Reid with them.

* * *

Chloe groaned as she awoke.

"Easy, can you sit up?"

Recognizing the gruff yet worried voice of her father, Chloe fought the heaviness of her eyes and opened them, her vision foggy before slowly clearing to show his face. "Hey dad."

"You did a stupid thing, Chloe." He glared at her, his voice rough but his hands tender as he helped her sit up, fluffing the pillows behind her for back support. "You didn't know what would happen when you stepped into that circle. Didn't you tell me that legends of Coyote stated that he was a Trickster and that you couldn't trust him?"

She took in a deep breath, mouth dry and with a bad taste under her tongue. "Reid filled you in I see."

Gibbs nodded, leaning back against his seat heavily. "I think he was worried that he was insane."

"His mom's a schizophrenic." She reached for the water by the bedside and drank a sip, the liquid cooling her throat. "It's hereditary."

Gibbs nodded once more, understanding. "He's been debriefed and knows that what happened has to be kept in the strictest confidence possible-that the President wants as little people as possible knowing about the supernatural existing and of your paranormal investigative duties."

"Does the President know what happened?" Chloe asked, bringing her hand to her throbbing head.

Her father took in a deep breath. "Once you are cleared you are to report to him. According to Dr. Reid, Coyote said something about the future being in danger, and Mister President wants to be informed what this new threat is."

"I don't  _know_  what it is." Chloe frowned, taking another, longer sip. "Or at least I don't think I do." She sighed. "Coyote said that when I absorbed what was gathered in the skulls that I'd download the 'software' I'd need to access and control the contents of my brain easier...but so far, other than a headache, I don't feel anything different."

Gibbs reached over and brushed some strands out of her face tenderly. "You took a big risk, kid."

"It paid off." Chloe leaned into the touch, giving him a reassuring smile. "Reid and I are back safe and sound."

"Talking about the good doctor..." Gibbs straightened, business once more. "He said something that makes sense. You will need someone you can talk to professionally about this. It's only human to need to get things off of your chest, and due to the extreme secrecy your division has-apparently the kid's got a degree in psychology or psychiatry-and he already knows about your job and what you handle."

Chloe tilted her head to the side. "Is he offering to be my shrink?"

Gibbs went on the defense, straightening and clearing his throat. "I know that you are  _touchy_  when it comes to psychiatric help due to your mother's mental condition, but Chloe, you are mature enough to understand that just because you see a shrink doesn't mean that you are crazy or-."

"No-I know that," Chloe interrupted, a small smile tilting her lips. "I actually-I actually would like that a lot."

Gibbs blinked, obviously shocked at her reaction and not sure exactly what to do since the battle he'd been expecting wasn't going to happen. "You would...?"

"Yeah, I would." Chloe smiled. "Is Reid still here?"

Gibbs nodded. "He should be."

"I think I'll go thank him myself." Standing from the bed, Chloe didn't bother putting on her shoes.

Pressing a kiss to her father's cheek, Chloe went to hunt for Dr. Spencer Reid.

* * *

Tony, from his position standing next to Ziva and McGee, watched as Chloe emerged from the back room she'd been resting in and smiled once she saw Dr. Reid, making a beeline towards the gangly guy. Tony raised an eyebrow, amused when the moment Dr. Reid noticed Chloe heading towards him he stood rapidly, almost jolting to his feet. Tony couldn't hear what the two were saying, but Chloe was smiling and clasping her hands behind her back, head tilted as she looked at him. Dr. Reid for his part was mildly blushing and obviously stuttering as he scratched the back of his head and didn't seem able to look her in the face as he spoke.

This was interesting.

It looked-it looked a lot like Chloe was  _flirting_  with the kid-doctor, and the gangly guy was stumbling through the conversation not realizing it, yet eagerly contributing his own awkwardness.

"I still can't believe he actually carried her," McGee was telling Ziva. "He doesn't look like he could have the strength."

"Adrenaline," Ziva mumbled back to him. "I've seen men lift  _cars_  off of their fallen comrades because of it."

Tony rolled his eyes at them.They were focusing on that and missing the  _obvious_  basic boy x girl scenario going on right in front of their eyes. Had this been a romantic, teen comedy, Chloe would be a cheerleader in full outfit and the kid would be a nerd who'd somehow won her heart and was pushing glasses up his nose. There would have been a kiss too. But this wasn't a romantic, teen-centric comedy, and unfortunately, Chloe wasn't dressed up as a cheerleader.

Sighing at an opportunity lost, Tony nevertheless was entertained with the two in front of him.

This kid wasn't the type he'd imagine Chloe with.

Now that  _Agent Booth_  she'd saved from the Mummy that'd terrorized the Jeffersonian last summer? Now  _he_  was someone Tony imagined the blonde with, especially since she was now  _legal_.  _And_ , Booth was good with a gun...and looked fearless...which were two things any man who set his eyes on  _Special Agent_   _Leroy Jethro Gibbs' DAUGHTER_  had to be.

Chloe leaned over and pressed a kiss on Dr. Reid's cheek, thanking him.

Now that Chloe was legal, there were only three men she'd ever shown an inch of interest in: John Winchester, Agent Seeley Booth, and now Dr. Spencer Reid. Considering John was old enough to be her father and Gibbs would  _never_  let that happen, Tony counted him out. So it really, in Tony's books at least, rested between Dr. Reid and Agent Booth.

"Do you think she's attracted to him?" McGee finally asked.

"It appears to be so." Ziva made a face. "I always imagined her more with Agent Booth though."

McGee frowned. "I think Chloe and Dr. Reid could share a  _mental_  bond she couldn't with Agent Booth."

"They fought like a perfect team against the Mummy. That speaks a lot about her chemistry with Agent Booth," Ziva countered.

Tony grinned. "How about a bet if you two are so sure?"

"Don't be so immature." Ziva frowned.

"What are we, in kindergarten?" McGee snorted.

"Ah, so you two aren't sure at  _all_ , huh?" Tony taunted. "All mouth, no play."

"Oh, I've got  _play_." Ziva glared. "Put me down for fifty bucks, Agent Booth."

"Put me down for fifty too! Dr. Reid!" McGee declared.

Tony grinned.

This was going to be  _fun._


End file.
